tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-94686722018-03-06T12:52:21.598-05:00Seeing the form"False interpretations will come and go, but the form remains. And the art is to remain with, to abide in the form." (Hans Urs von Balthasar, Glory of the Lord, I:618)Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.comBlogger58125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-53587155881052605882015-03-16T22:28:00.000-04:002015-03-16T22:28:00.496-04:00From evangelical to Episcopal, Part 4I recently found myself in a conversation on facebook with a friend
of mine from my evangelical days. I was a youth minister at a
particular church, and this friend was a recent high school graduate
from the church when I knew her. She messaged me to ask a number of
questions about being Episcopalian and about my views on certain
Christian themes in general. In this series, I'll simply Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-5598328898187337312015-03-09T22:11:00.000-04:002015-03-09T22:11:00.189-04:00From evangelical to Episcopal, Part 3I recently found myself in a conversation on facebook with a friend
of mine from my evangelical days. I was a youth minister at a
particular church, and this friend was a recent high school graduate
from the church when I knew her. She messaged me to ask a number of
questions about being Episcopalian and about my views on certain
Christian themes in general. In this series, I'll simply Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-48576484456693528062015-03-02T22:08:00.000-05:002015-03-02T22:08:00.265-05:00From evangelical to Episcopal, Part 2I recently found myself in a conversation on facebook with a friend
of mine from my evangelical days. I was a youth minister at a
particular church, and this friend was a recent high school graduate
from the church when I knew her. She messaged me to ask a number of
questions about being Episcopalian and about my views on certain
Christian themes in general. In this series, I'll simply Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-51256596816731705552015-02-23T22:06:00.000-05:002015-02-23T22:06:00.026-05:00From evangelical to Episcopal, Part 1I recently found myself in a conversation on facebook with a friend of mine from my evangelical days. I was a youth minister at a particular church, and this friend was a recent high school graduate from the church when I knew her. She messaged me to ask a number of questions about being Episcopalian and about my views on certain Christian themes in general. In this series, I'll simply restateAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-34048740699964709982015-02-16T22:00:00.001-05:002015-02-16T22:00:25.917-05:00Now in print
My article on the motivations for Encratite prohibitions in early Christianity was published by Journal of Theological Studies in October. The article along with the whole current issue is currently available here. Here's the abstract:
The most prominent accounts of encratism identify it as an early
Christian ascetical sect that refrained from sex, and possibly
alsoAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-46482087155139569982015-02-16T21:59:00.001-05:002015-02-16T21:59:32.159-05:00Now in (e-)print
My review of Experientia, Volume 2 has been posted at the Review of Biblical Literature website.
A brief excerpt:
"This volume offers an array of voices to think with, conversation partners to engage for those interested in examining ancient religious experience and the texts that reflected and elicited them. What it lacks in coherence it makes up for in verve. Experimentation may not Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-91104877192207467152015-02-16T21:57:00.004-05:002015-02-16T21:57:45.296-05:00You're still there?So, it looks as though I still have more traffic here than on my other blog. At least for now, then, I'm going to double dip. I'll be posting academic content in both places. First up, this announcement:
What does Karl Barth have in common with John Wesley, Jacob Taubes, Stanley Hauerwas, and the Coen Brothers? To find out take a look at what just rolled off the presses at Pickwick.
TheAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-24248703212799809082013-10-06T13:53:00.002-04:002013-10-06T15:31:46.965-04:00Moving ContentDear Loyal Readers, Friends, Romans, Countrymen:
I am opening a new blog: Didaskalikon. I am migrating all academic content there, and will be blogging said academic content at that location. I hope you will follow me over. This blog will remain my personal blog, and I may make it private. So bookmark my new blog!
See you soon!
Andy Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-26412862206891783942013-09-17T20:31:00.001-04:002013-09-17T20:31:46.407-04:00...being rapt with the love of his beauty
God which moveth mere natural creatures as an efficient only, doth otherwise move intellectual creatures, and especially his holy angels: for beholding the face of God, in admiration of so great excellency they all adore him; and being rapt with the love of his beauty, they cleave inseparably for ever unto him. Desire to resemble him in goodness maketh them unweariable and even unsatiable in Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-31475421680982220292013-02-14T15:54:00.003-05:002013-02-14T15:59:47.767-05:00Pauline Soteriology: Theosis or Deification (Part II: M. David Litwa)
"Today, biblical scholarship on deification is more or less dominated
by theological discourse and presuppositions. In this climate, it is
tempting to simply focus on Christian forms of deification when treating
Paul. I am convinced, however, that scholars will never understand
Paul and deification until they open themselves up to honest historical
inquiry about other, larger discourses Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-70673996706483488992012-07-13T11:20:00.001-04:002012-07-13T14:57:47.627-04:00Pauline Soteriology: Theosis or Deification (Part I: Ben Blackwell)As I was entering the Judaism and Christianity in Antiquity program at the University of Virginia, I was told another entering student would be working on theosis or deification in Paul, and I thought, "That's weird." I hope I can be forgiven such a dismissive reaction, since my interest in Paul at the time was mostly to do with the so-called apocalyptic Paul. In Joseph Kitagawa's foreword to Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-1909068636240388072012-04-26T22:14:00.004-04:002012-04-26T22:15:30.189-04:00David Litwa on Deification in Paul
A belated congratulations to my friend and colleague, David Litwa on the publication of his book. I read parts while it was in progress, and it is a very learned volume. Litwa's approach is certainly more historical than most approaches to deification, but precisely therein lies its value. If you are interested in Paul, I recommend you read it.
I will try to post a review in the near Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-74269889080981208122012-01-31T22:26:00.001-05:002012-07-13T15:28:18.917-04:00De Lubac on Platonism and Stoicism in the Bible and the Fathers
"It is a commonplace to allude to the Platonism of the Fathers in connexion with these doctrines [of the cosmic body]. But instead of invoking the Platonic doctrine of essential being, we should do better to account for them--to the extent that they are dependent at all on a philosophic basis--by looking rather to the Stoic conception of universal being. There are many expressions in Marcus Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-91135652793476657742011-09-15T08:36:00.001-04:002011-09-15T08:36:34.472-04:00John Ashton on DemythologizationIn his splendid book on the Fourth Gospel, John Ashton has some truly wonderful turns of phrases. It is one of the most erudite and humane books in biblical studies I have ever read. One of the hidden gems can be found in his discussion of John 1.51 ("Amen, amen I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man"):
"One of the Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-84246302133858288402011-07-19T11:34:00.000-04:002011-07-19T11:34:03.297-04:00Incidentally...Remember when I posted about "Constantinianism"? I vaguely do, so I won't blame you if you don't. Well, I have been enjoying (when not reading about Paul or writing about the Encratites) Peter Leithart's Defending Constantine. Leithart draws on an impressive array of evidence and scholarship in his sensitive treatment of Constantine. Let me humbly advise all who think Constantine was the Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-16510059043528068772011-05-25T21:14:00.000-04:002013-10-04T20:32:18.303-04:00Why do Christians pray? Oh, right.The monastic literature of the fourth and early fifth centuries develops the pattern of a contemplative ascent through the moral life to the perception of reason and order in creation and thence to that openness to God as God which evades all conceptual definition and is true theologia. In other words, the person who prays is the person who both in behaviour and in understanding restores Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-9228209503733502042011-02-12T10:23:00.000-05:002011-02-12T10:23:02.527-05:00Changing Educational ParadigmsGot this in an email from my sister-in-law (that still sounds weird in my ear). Fascinating. Both the animation and the talk.
Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-67293388064892997952010-06-08T17:13:00.000-04:002012-07-13T11:25:44.612-04:00Balthasar and Barth: Some suggestionsJust a brief note of frustration. Why is it that whenever you mention Balthasar to a Barthian, they inevitably (almost nervously) remark that Balthasar was much indebted to Barth, but not vice versa? It is true that Balthasar was more influenced by Barth than the other way around. But it is not clear to me that Barth was a very strong influence (meaning: source) for Balthasar's theology. If Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-43977521243598427102010-04-16T12:28:00.005-04:002010-04-16T12:45:59.568-04:00Pure Mathematics of the Spirit"The spirits of the living world were never meant to be so neighbourly with the spirits of that other. "Grant to them eternal rest, O Lord. And let light eternal shine upon them." Let them rest in their own places of light; far, far from us be their discipline and their endeavour. The phrases of the prayers of intercession throb with something other than charity for the departed; there is a fear Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-39084871331335383392010-04-05T09:00:00.000-04:002012-07-13T11:27:38.100-04:00Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images
Austin Farrer, A Rebirth of Images (London: Dacre, 1949).
No one has applied himself to the question of the literary art of the Apocalypse with more relentlessness than Austin Farrer. The book is a masterpiece and a puzzle, at once impressive and bemusing. The entire book is dominated by the conclusion (or shall we say, conviction) that the Apocalypse “is the one great poem which the first Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-23002347983682712972010-04-03T08:32:00.004-04:002010-04-03T09:03:19.020-04:00Peter of Damascus a propos the dayToday is Holy Saturday. It is a day for remembering yesterday and hoping for tomorrow. Funerals are interesting times, usually filled as much with laughter and smiles as with tears and weeping--and all of that is mourning. But I suspect the laughing and the weeping, the chattering and the condolences are basically a way to fill the silence. Not silence in general, but a specific silence. We Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-50982538434405438722010-03-30T09:00:00.002-04:002012-07-13T11:28:05.926-04:00Rowland, "Things into Which Angels Long to Look"
Christopher Rowland, “Things into Which Angels Long to Look: Approaching Mysticism from the Perspective of the New Testament and the Jewish Apocalypses,” in Christopher Rowland and Christopher R. A. Morray-Jones, The Mystery of God: Early Jewish Mysticism and the New Testament (CRINT, vol. 12; Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2009), pp. 1-216.
In this study Christopher Rowland provides an Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-23440371512551751702010-03-26T19:14:00.005-04:002012-07-13T11:28:53.630-04:00Atheist Delusions
I try to read as much of David Bentley Hart's work as I can. He is about the finest public Christian theologian I have read. Since I have taken back up with historical studies, I have little time for works of theology. But this is one I could not resist. In Atheist Delusions, Hart takes on the so-called New Atheists and their popular proclamations and pontifications.
The book is arranged inAndyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-2726631496708346852010-01-15T20:22:00.004-05:002012-07-13T11:29:27.791-04:00The Historical Jesus: Five Views
Ordinarily I find these 'four views' or 'five views' kind of books a little contrived. Usually published by evangelical publishers and edited by evangelical editors, I think they are intended to show the superiority of the evangelical position. But this volume comprises a nice cross-section of current historical Jesus research.
The introduction to the volume is judicious and offers the basic Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9468672.post-40156491204888931142009-12-27T22:59:00.004-05:002012-07-13T11:30:00.207-04:00Stark, Statistics, and the Early ChurchIn Cities of God (New York: HarperCollins, 2006), popular sociologist Rodney Stark attempts to bring quantitative, statistical analysis to bear on the study of the history of early Christian expansion. The description of the 'triumph' of Christianity, Stark argues, is incomplete, indeed unscientific, without the utilization of quantitative methods. "A major purpose of this book," writes Stark,Andyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02322476768181129691noreply@blogger.com1